The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1915 WITH MALICE AFORETHOUGHT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 45, 24 February 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1915 WITH MALICE AFORETHOUGHT.

The pretence on the part of Germany that the latest development of her sea policy is something new, and not by any means contemplated until driven to extremes by stern “necessity,” is just a.s false and flimsy as any other assertion regarding the conduct of the war which has yet come from what the world must look upon as “a nation of liars.” Bernhardi,, the author of “Germany and the Next War,” and “How Germany Makes War,” in cold, blood, long before the world outside Prussian militarism ever dreamt that the blood-thirsty, talk indulged in by such madmen would be realised, actually sets out in print what Germany must do to ensure success, and in one special series of considerations in naval warfare he actually outlines the] very acts of piracy which Germany is to-day enacting, and, at the same! time trying to excuse herself for. i Bernhardi says; “The first and mostj important success (on the .sea) can only be ‘attained by surprise. This war must also be conducted as ruthlessly as possible, since only then, in addition to the material damage inflicted upon the enemy (meaning England) the necessary terror is spread among the hostile merchant fleet and thereby more injury done than by the capture of actual prizes. A certain amount of terrorism must be practised

on the sea, making peaceable tradesmen stay in the safe harbours. It is customary, as a rule, to convoy prizes to the nearest port at home and to destroy them only in case of need, as is also provided for in the London Declaration. Hut the party with few) naval pivots of its own in foreign waters will often find itself in a posi-j tion to assume its case to be ‘one of j need,’ and will then naturally destroy at once the hostile ships captured; short work must likewise generally be made of neutral ships carrying contraband. Mines which wc intend to lay for disturbing hostile trade, or ( for barring the home waters, must I also bo hold ready in peace-time, so | as to be at once used at the beginning of the war.” That is merely one, statement by a man who is looked up to as a leader of public opinion, and a high authority on how war should be conducted. Again, in another pas- 1 sage he says: ‘‘Especially at the beginning of the war and sometimes in peace even—if there is no other means of defending oneself against superior forces—it will be advisable to attack the enemy by torpedo and submarine boats, and to inflict upon it unexpected losses.” What more can one say regarding the degradation to which a nation has sunk whose so-called' ‘great’ men preach such doctrine, and whose people absorb ami act upon it. To the wretched ruler of this frightful country it has been reserved, as the Dean of Exeter ’ recently so ably put it, “to bring two new factors into the region of war—infanticide and suicide”—the murdering of babies and old women. That a certain amount

of loss must be sustained by English merchant shipping, and by • neutral countries also, by reason of the pira-

tical enterprise of Germany, is quite evident, but it is not likely to dismay the sea-going men of Britain who are contemptuously defiant of German boasting, and know that the risks taken on the whole are not greater to-day than they have been during the past six months. Rats lurk in their, hiding places and at times creep out] to do damage: when they become too j bold extermination usually follows. Extermination awaits the lurking Ger. man rodents.